Faculty Member Runs Away with Ultramarathon

Talk about going the extra mile: Mercersburg faculty member Alisa Springman won a 100-mile race from Key Largo to Key West, Florida, in May. Springman placed first in the inaugural Keys 100—more than two and a half hours ahead of her closest challenger—and covered the 100 miles south of Miami on foot in 23 hours, 2 minutes, 23 seconds.

“For me, every ultramarathon is a celebration of possibility and of physical, mental, and spiritual strength,” Springman says. “I was fortunate to have a solid race that was going according to plan--until my crew and the race director informed me at mile 75 that they thought I could catch the lead runner and be the overall winner. That gave me real focus during the last 25 miles. I was thrilled to finish in good time and in good physical condition; winning was just the icing on the cake.”

The race was held on a Saturday; the following Monday, Springman was back on campus teaching math and serving as dorm dean of Keil Hall.

Springman will compete in July in the 2008 Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race from Death Valley to Mount Whitney in California; she initially entered the Keys 100 Ultramarathon with the intention of using it as a training run for the Badwater event.

Springman is competing at Badwater to raise funds for the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation in memory of Lauren Grady, the daughter of Mercersburg faculty member David Grady.